Last year, Lifetime gave a straight-to-series pickup for Damien, a sequel series to The Omen films. Given Lifetime’s focus on television for women, it seemed like an odd fit for the network.
Today, Deadline is reporting that Damien is leaving Lifetime and will instead be shown on its corporate sibling, A&E. Additionally, Damien’s first season has been expanded from six episodes to ten episodes.
Damien is executive produced by former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara and features Bradley James as Damien Thorn, the antichrist and son of the devil from The Omen feature films. In the TV series, Damien is an adult and unaware of his true nature.
Bates Motel (a reimagined TV prequel for Psycho) has been one of A&E’s top performing shows. Potentially, Damien could potentially serve as a companion series to Bates Motel next season if The Returned is not renewed by A&E.
“A&E’s unwavering commitment to high quality original scripted drama programming, coupled with the sizable fan-base for our hit series ‘Bates Motel,’ which so perfectly aligns with ‘Damien,’ make the network the ideal fit for this exceptional show,” said Lifetime and A&E Executive Vice President, Rob Sharenow in a brief statement.
Barbara Hershey, Omid Abtahi and Megalyn Echikunwoke co-star in Damien, which is currently being filmed in Toronto. A premiere date for Damien has not yet been announced.
